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Remy Amador Presas (English version)

Remy Amador Presas - one of the most well-known persons in the world of martial arts. He is an outstanding stick-fighter. Remy Presas became widely known in his country due to compounding the countless of the styles in one, which he named Modern Arnis.

Presas started doing Arnis at the age of 6 with his father, Jose B. Presas. He left his home when he was 14 and, following his passion in martial arts, studied them in the different isles of his motherland. Presas united the most important aspects of Kalis, Escrima, Tjkalele and Arnis de Mano in art which is still developing. Travelling to his country and taught a lot he revived Arnis as national sport, which was included as a Physical Education course in schools and colleges. In 1970 he made a splash in his country: the number of members of Modern Arnis Federation reached 4000 people. In 1975 he left the Philippines and, sponsored by the government, went to Goodwill Tour of the world with the aim of extensioning of Modern Arnis.

"Before Arnis used to be a dying art, - said Presas. The old masters believed that stick is sacred. This meant that they would aim to the hand of their partner, not in the stick. The majority of students immediately received wounds and lost interest in Arnis at once. I made some adjustments and endorsed strikes on stick instead of the usual custom. Then I established the main concepts of many philipines martial arts and brought unity into scattered systems of my country. Thus, all of us could feel the unity".

The main emphasis of Modern Arnis is not on defeating an enemy, but on disarming.

Presas didn't just combined the techniques, he inspired his students to adapt every technique for themselves. The techniques are based on the natural movements instead of rigid, inflexible and fixed forms. In place of learning difficult forms of protection and exercises in one step, students learned the basics of natural movement and use of the same model of reaction both in defense and in attack. Also it did not matter what weapon they used - knife, stick, bolo-knife or they didn't have weapon at all: the movements were the same. In addition to it, all the techniques led to countless disarms, throws and joint locks.

This way of learning Grandmaster named as "the flow". Due to this method of learning all the movements of Arnis and the individual characteristics of a practitioner created the unique and the most effective for every person style of fight, based on his individual characteristics.

In USA Presas taught people, moving from state to state as well as he was travelling from one island to another in his motherland. Until the end of his days Grandmaster was travelling around the world and taught Modern Arnis with hufe energy and enthusiasm.

Remy Presas became one of the highly respected and beloved persons in the martial arts world. Not only because of the outstanding fighter skills, but because of his personal qualities. Students described him as an enthusiastic, generous and compassionate man. His methods of teaching, charm and energy have inspired many of his students. Remy Presas was really charismatic person and an outstanding example for all the masters of martial arts.

Arnis makes many martial artists discover new things about their own style. They recognize the beauty of arnis because it blends naturally the best movements from many arts. Most of my students continue to study their own styles - they just use arnis to supplement their understanding.